CHEVS Launches Tech4Pride

The Centre for Health Education and Vulnerable Support (CHEVS) is proud to announce her inaugural training and empowerment programme targeted at improving the financial independence of LGBTQI+ youths living in Nigeria, by leveraging on the burgeoning tech ecosystem. Our goal is to have more young LGBTQ+ individuals occupy the knowledge economy. Tech is becoming a huge part of our lifestyle, and we want our community to be part of the revolution by providing the skills they need to thrive in a world that is becoming digitally transformed.Speaking at the online launch event, Justin Chidozie, the Executive Director of CHEVS, said, “I am happy about this launch. We have worked tirelessly on this project over the last couple of months and I cannot wait for our beneficiaries to enjoy this labour of love. TECH4PRIDE was born out of the desire to have more LGBTQ+ youths as part of the digital economy. Whenever you go on Twitter and LinkedIn, you encounter news of someone getting hired to work with an international company and how they have raised funds to build their digital products; and I wonder what is stopping our community. We need to pump in more LGBTQ+ youths into the workforce, so they can be empowered, live better lives, make better sexual choices and be active global citizens.”The skills to be taught during the fellowship include: UI/UX design, Copy writing, Web development/design, Data Analysis, etc. CHEVS believes these skills are hot on the tech market and want beneficiaries to find jobs and internship placements as quickly as possible.Many LGBTQ+ persons live below the poverty line and the systems are rigged against them. With TECH4PRIDE, CHEVS is giving the community back its power to be self-sufficient and thrive, galvanizing others to take action and in the end, start a conversation about our rigid systems.The TECH4PRIDE is going to be a yearly cohort, because the mission is to have over 40% of LGBTQI+ individuals make up the entire tech workforce by 2025. We are grateful to our partners at COC Nederland for providing the funding needed for our pilot launch. We are hoping to get more partners on-board as we embark on this narrative and life changing exercise.The call for mentors and application would be made public to the community soon. To learn more about this programme, visit www.chevs.org

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About CHEVSThe Centre for Health Education and Vulnerable Support (CHEVS) was founded in 2018. The organisation has, since then, been actively engaged in advocacy for vulnerable communities and programmes aimed at improving the lives of members of these communities. These programmes include Peer2Peer, Winning AIDS for Youths, the Equaliser Project, and the soon-to-kick-off Asanka Media Fellowship.For more information, visit the CHEVS website.